Red Rider (On Hold)
by Raresnow
Summary: General Hawk of the G.I. Joes has become a little too short on soldiers since Cobra's last scheme, so he decides to go a bit out of his way to recruit a roguish woman with no future to join his team and train to be a great soldier for him and the rest of the world. (Cover is Rider by Cornis)
1. Recovery and Cake Makes Paris Explode

The woman had seen better days — that was for sure. Her nose was bent and leaking copper, arm popped out-of-place and loose, her eyes bore old bruises and she had forgotten how to smile.

But she's seen far worse days too. The boys back home used to beat her up, and she'd have to deal with injuries that would take longer to heal than some bruises and some blood would. Those guys were assholes.

She took another drag from her e-cig, letting the nice blueberry smell waft in front of her face as she took a long sniff of it. Blueberry was her favorite, along with watermelon and cotton candy. After placing the device back in her cross bag, she pulled her face mask back up, and began to try her best to not look like she wasn't limping as she went to haul a cab.

Wincing and sucking in a sharp breath as she sat down on the cabbie seats after she heard it pull up, she carefully pulled her arm out from underneath her, and told the cabbie where to drop her off. She needed to stop by an old friends for help.

Knocking on their apartment door, she gave a small smile when their friends mother gasped and worriedly asked her, "What happened?"

She only grunted in reply and came in, setting herself down onto the long brown cotton couch. "I need you to bring Aaron out here, I'm gonna need his help, if you don't mind, Mrs. Tyker."

Mrs. Tyker nodded and pulled said son out of his room, obviously interrupting his sleep, since he was dressed in only boxer briefs and a wife beater. Aaron pulled up a chair in front of her, and leaned in towards her heaving body on his couch.

"Arm dislocated again? Or is it something that needs to be sewn?" he asked, pulling down her mask from her face, letting it sit around her neck. He hated when she talked with that thing on. And they've known each other for so long that she won't bite his hand off when he did exactly that.

Her breathing finally slowed down to a normal pace, since she accidentally smacked her right arm on various things on the walk up here. "If something needed to be stitched, then I could've done it myself, Aaron. You know already that it's one of my natural fortes." she moved a piece of her bangs out of her contact lens-covered eyes. "My arm's out and I'm out of bandages and stuff."

"And stuff?" he quirked a brow; something he does probably too much.

"I just need you to pop my arm back in quickly and re-supply me a bit." she sighed, and continued. "Then I'll be out of your hair; I promise."

Aaron broke eye contact for a bit, then looked back at her, disdain looming in his eyes, and she knew exactly why. For a long time they had resented each other (him more than her) since he felt betrayed by her when she deserted him for her own reasons over 12 years ago. "For how long?" he asked her, rubbing his eyes.

"How long do you want me gone? And 'forever' _isn't_ an option."

"Damn right it's not!" Mrs. Tyker called from the bathroom where she was gathering first-aid items.

The two of them chuckled lightly, but easily slipped back into the serious atmosphere of their conversation.

"At least.. six months, maybe a year. Maybe more."

"Why?"

Aaron took her by her jaw, and snapped her nose straight, making her wince and curse. "I found this girl, her name's Lyra, and she's really cool. I don't want to scare her off when you show up here in the middle of the night looking like shit." he gently flicked a piece of her bangs out of her eyes, then tucked one of her braids behind her ear. "I'm sorry, Ryan, I am, but I know you'll be fine without me. If I don't call you around eight months with a status report, then come find me."

Ryan bit the inside of her cheek, then nodded to him. "Fine." she said, then brought her arm to his attention. "Hey, still need you to help me out with this." She turned to the side, and put her mask in between her teeth to contain her screams and allow herself to bite on something. Aaron slowly lifted her arm, and she braced herself for it.

"Three..Two..." One never came as he slammed the arm joint back into it's designated socket. She screamed, and tried to claw at something, but her fingers couldn't find much grip on the couch, and she ended up puncturing her own calf.

Once that was over with, Mrs. Tyker came out from the bathroom. "Always hated that part." she mumbled under her breath, and handed Ryan a large ziploc bag full of bandages, assorted ointments, and other things that just might come in handy within her audacious life. When she figured that putting it away for her would've been easier, she took the courtesy to pack the supplies into her bag. "Now, sweetheart, even though my darling son here," Nancy ruffled her son's hair. "Restricted you from coming to him here, don't you dare think that you can't call me up whenever you like, if you want to talk about anything." she gave Ryan a kiss on her forehead. "You're like a daughter to me, so I'll be like a second mother to you."

Aaron then copied his mother, kissed Ryan on the forehead, then proceeded to bandage up the long, shallow cuts that she inexplicably gained on her forearms, hands and legs. He then went on to put a gauze on the scrapes on her face, and a band-aid over a large bruise on her cheekbone. "There you go." he said, and gave her a pat on the shoulder, and she winced a bit; she had another bruise there.

"Would you like anything to eat? I can make something to go for you." Mrs. Tyker said, drying off her just washed hands on a dish towel. Ryan nodded.

"I would really enjoy anything you got. Thank you, Nancy." she said gratefully, sighing heavily. The Mrs. went into the kitchen and prepared a couple different sandwiches and a slice of leftover cake that she had gotten from a trip to the bakery. Luckily, it was strawberry chocolate, one of Ryan's favorites. She had a lot of different favorite flavors of cake; it was one of her favorite foods. But, since she wasn't all about being big, she had to moderate her monthly cake consumption. Nancy packed it up into one of her to-go containers that she kept fresh inside a shelf, and packed the food inside of it.

"Thank you, Mrs. Tyker, I really appreciate both of your help." Ryan said, standing back up, and ruffling her old friend's hair. Taking hold of the outstretched box of deliciously smelling food, she hugged the generous people around her, and said her goodbyes, keeping all of it brief. Long goodbyes always seemed useless to her.

Clicking her tongue, a necessity that she's become so accustomed to, she took her time going back downstairs from the apartment, already wishing that she never left, or was never told to leave by someone that she trusted so much. Ryan pushed open the jingling front door, and stepped out onto the sidewalk, hearing the calls of the Loon bird, when a panicked scream filled her hyper-sensitive ears. She could tell that it wasn't a scream that came from an actual person, per say, but from a television screen. A reporter was shouting over the loud shrieks of citizens.

"The Eiffel Tower has been hit! I repeat, the Eiffel Tower has been hit! Just moments ago, a rocketing projectile was seen being launched from a building, hitting the landmark. An unknown green cloud spread across the tower. Pandemonium has broken out in the capital—" the news reporter was interrupted by a loud creaking noise, then the broadcast went static.

What the hell was going on in Paris?


	2. When a Bird Raps, Don't Open the Door

It's been around a week and a half since the destruction of the Eiffel Tower, and Ryan's constantly left on the international channel on the radio so that she could continue to stay in the loop with the recovery of the monument. So far, the government over there in France had brought in cranes to the wreckage to try to repair the tower. Today, though, she had to take a break from listening to it, since she had to go grocery shopping. She'd been slowly picking away at the two days worth of food that Aaron's mom gave her. Really, she had been avoiding the chore for a while, since her main source of income had been terminated. Basically, a customer of the food store that she was working at couldn't understand the things that Ryan could and could not do, and they ended up complaining to the manager and demanding that such a person shouldn't be working at a public establishment like that.

So, she left her mega dingy motel room, going out of her way to go to a separate grocery store and spent the little money she had on granola, eggs, milk, bagels, and water. Recycled bags that were donated by Mrs. Tyker in her hands, she walked back "home," mind wandering to the tragedy of the Eiffel Tower. How could such a thing happen? And who could ever want to do that to such a recognized structure? She's never seen it, like she hasn't seen a lot of things, but Aaron has described to her in detail how the tower looked and its complete structure. It sounded beautiful to her, and she wished that she could see it. Just the thought of such a famous thing being destroyed pretty much broke her heart.

Ryan unlocked her front door and placed her things down on the counter, and again flipped the radio on to the news station.

"This just in — just a few days ago, the ice cap of the Arctic Ocean has been hit by what scientists estimate was a large bomb, but some think that more could be involved in this devastating occurrence. More news and details to come at ten." Well, isn't it convenience week for her and the newscasters.

She started putting away her few groceries, when a knock came at her door. Putting away her large jug of water, she messily tied up her bright red braided hair and opened up the door, to only hear the grungy sounds of her bizarre manager of the motel. He unfortunately owned the place, since it was a sort of hand-me-down from his father, who owned the entire motel chain.

He stared at her for a bit (something that he always did) before getting to the topic that he originally came here for. "Your, uh, 'rent,' is due today, love." he sighed, leaning across the doorframe. Ryan reached over to the table nearby the entrance that she knew was there, grabbing the envelope that was put there so she wouldn't forget it. It was full of the last of her savings – also known as the rent for this week. She handed it to him, and he snatched it from her grasp. "See you next week, then." he gave her a small goodbye. She shut the door and went into the kitchen.

To appease her growling appetite, Ryan took out two eggs and a pan, and began to make herself a mediocre dinner. Once she was finished with cooking and sat down on the shabby couch, she flicked the radio to the sports channel. There was a baseball game on; her favorite sport. Digging into her small meal, she listened intently to the announcer, who was commenting on the batter, and she really hoped that they would make a home run, or at least to third base.

Then, another rapping came at her door, which she immediately found strange. The only person that would ever come to see her would just be the manager, and it couldn't be Aaron since he just forbade her from them seeing each other. There was a small chance that it could be Nancy, but Ryan isn't even sure if she remembers where she lives, but there was an even less of a chance of that happening since she was scared of this part of town.

Sitting up from her seat, Ryan got up and opened up the door. She could sense two people standing across from her.

"Andrelus, Ryan?" a man asked. She nodded slightly, and gripped the doorknob. "My name is Clayton Abernathy, but you can call me General Hawk. This is here is Breaker, a member of my Alpha Team. May we talk to you for a moment?"

She furrowed her brow, but let them inside, since she could not sense an evil or bad air to them. They didn't sit down, but instead chose to stand inside her "living room."

"Is this a legal thing?" she asked a bit anxiously, playing with the ends of her ponytail.

There was a few seconds of silence before the unfamiliar voice, Breaker most likely, spoke up to say, "No."

"To get to the point, Ms. Andrelus, we're here to give you a proposition." Hawk said.

Her brow rose, displaying her surprise to them both. "What?" she asked with a bewildered tone.

"Unfortunately, though, no more details can be spoken about this while we're in this kind of environment. We could write the details down for you and then burn them afterwards, if that's alright with you? Only if your building allows fires, though." she couldn't much tell what the two men were doing, but she felt their burning eyes.

Ryan scoffed, and she could hear them jolt in their spots. "Uh, don't know if you noticed General, but I can't even see. So writing things down isn't really an option for me," then she added a tad sarcastically, "Sir."

The General cleared his throat nervously, but continued speaking, despite the embarrassing hiccup in the conversation. "Well, then. Since that isn't an option anymore, would it be alright if you followed us to a safer location?"

She crossed her arms. "How can I know that I can trust you two? For all I know you guys could be serial killers, or rapists." Really, who the hell were these guys? They sounded pretty professional, and they already gave off a sense of trust-worthiness. Something about them made Ryan want to rely on them (to a certain extent, of course).

"You can feel my badges and medals, if you'd prefer?" the General offered, but Ryan shook her head, and decided to go with her gut; it never steered her wrong before.

"No, I'll come. Just give me a minute to change. It's too cold out for me to leave wearing shorts."

Oh, crap. Realizing that she had been wearing her shorts all day, meant that people all day could see all of her bandages. God, they probably thought that she was such a freak. Gauze and band-aids on her face was enough to signify that she was a troublemaker, but more of those on her arms and legs would make people assume that she.. harmed herself or something. Like she was insane. And already people judge her because of her always wearing the same animal-eye contacts, and living inside of a cheap motel. She didn't need anymore ridiculing from cruel strangers in her life.

Quickly Ryan changed into a pair of pants which unfortunately had large holes in them (Good Will never sewed up their pants all the way), an old shirt and a black hoodie. She walked back out into the front room where the men were still standing, and heard them playing around with her awful radio.

"Leave it on the baseball station," she told them, then gestured to her door. "Let's go, shall we?" She lead them out, but stopped at the frame and looked to her right. There was certainly someone standing there – she could feel there body heat and hear their breathing.

A hand was placed on her shoulder, somewhat startling her. "Relax, Ms. Andrelus, it is just our teammate, Snake Eyes. He doesn't talk, so I will tell you what he's.. saying." Breaker said, patting her arm. "He says hello, and he's holding out a hand for you to shake."

Ryan nodded in understanding and took Snakes Eyes' gloved hand. "Nice to meet you, Link."

The men around her paused and the hall was full of complete silence, besides blasting of hard rock music a floor up.

"It was a reference." Ryan sighed. "Nevermind, I just won't call you that anymore." she rolled her eyes. "Let's just go. Show me the way, boys."


	3. Denial, Disabilities, and Diseases

General Hawk, Breaker, and Snake Eyes ushered Ryan to follow them down the street, with the silent man following from behind the her. She had plenty of questions about him and his almost silent mannerisms; was he just mute or just selectively? From the moment that she had first sensed his looming self, she could tell that their was a large, mysterious air to the man, and it sort of made her very uncomfortable. But yet, at the same time, she felt as if he was extremely trustworthy as a person, and extremely loyal. It was probably just because he never said a word.

Ryan let her feet lazily drag on the sidewalk, body feeling super exhausted all of the sudden. She felt a small nudge on the back of her lower leg from behind; it was probably Snake being annoyed by what she was doing. Or maybe he cared enough to tell her not to do that, since it was most likely that people with think that she's ill-mannered. Well, even more so insolent and vulgar than the effect of her bandages would have. Probably not.

"My bad," she mumbled an apology, and looked down to watch her feet move against the pavement. But again, she felt a poking at her back, and she turned her head to the side and asked the man, "What?"

"He wants you to keep your head up and quit dragging your feet. It'll make people think that you are respectable and honorable... his words." Breaker told her, speaking aloud for Snake's hand gestures. "I'd take his advice."

She turned forward again, but ignored what the man behind her suggested. "Hush," she told each of them, and she continued her shuffling, just to ruffle Snake Eyes' feathers. She could hear a faint chuckle coming from General Hawk.

Each of them walked for probably about a block or two longer, when they finally stopped and entered a restaurant. It smelt like a town's standard Mexican food place, but it sounded calm and full of people with actual manners. Their voices were humble and set to a certain volume, sounding calm as customers could be. She kind of loved it. Scratch that, she _really_ loved it. She could definitely come here on the daily, it could become her usual hang out spot — even though she knew that she didn't have any money to spend.

Hawk put his hand gently on her back, to guide her. "We're going to set up inside of a booth, then finally discuss the proposal that I have for you. That sound alright?"

She rolled her clouded eyes. "Obviously, or else I wouldn't be here, following three strangers into some zen hangout." Ryan sat down inside of the leather seats, feeling the material of whatever Snake Eyes was wearing brush up against her for a brief second, before she could feel him move away and re-situate himself. His body boxed her in so that she wouldn't skip out on the group and fully listen (as if she had much choice) to what the General had to say. She couldn't blame him.

"So, spill it all, General. Lay out the details." Ryan told him, crossing her fingers over the table.

"Alright, I will, young lady." Hawk cleared his throat. "We want you to join the G.I. Joes. The Joes are an elite, top of the line soldiers, who're only recruited based on the promise that they've shown in the past. But you, Ms. Andrelus, are the first to be scouted who has no outstanding past, but I specifically chose you, because you show _promise_. And for that, we want to train you, and make you become one hell of a soldier."

From when he said "Top of the line soldiers," her jaw fell against the table. What the hell was this man even going on about? Elite warriors? She desperately wanted to believe that this was all just a practical joke, but once again, her gut told her the opposite. Damn thing. So she just did her best to hide her disbelief.

"Why me? What made you see promise.. i-in me?" Her stutter was small, but still evident enough for the men around her to hear it.

"Well, I was shown by a member of my Gamma Team a video of you off of the internet, getting your ass kicked by a group of guys that seemed like gang members, and after all of that, you still got up and fought back. You got a lot of spirit, kid, even for a person with your background and characteristics." A waiter walked around to the table and she could hear him place a few drinks down.

Ryan sneered at them, and clenched her fists. "My 'characteristics?' So, you mean my blindness disabled me to whoop some?" she felt her anger surge. "'Background?' Really? You know what, General, all of this is bullshit. And you know what? I don't believe any of it. So fuck you, and I'm out of here." Absolutely livid, she tried to scoot out of the booth that she was in, but she was so pissed that she forgot that the silent man was blocking her in. She instead tried to step over him, but he put his hand on her shoulder.

"Please, don't be so temperamental, Ms. Andrelus, and think and think about this opportunity and what kind of impact it could have on your life." Breaker said rather quickly, since he didn't know whether or not she would actually punch him or just up and leave before he could tell her what he wanted to say.

She only mumbled something under her breath then stepped over the table to leave, but once again Snake stopped her. He snatched her ankle, which made her trip and fall face first onto the ground, tipping over the table with her, and also made the drinks (which were luckily just water) spill all over her. Embarrassed and enraged, never a good combination with this one. She really wanted to just up and murder them already. It was an emotion that appeared pretty frequently. Probably too much for it to be considered anywhere near normal.

The three of them got up from where they stood, but only the person that knocked her down helped her stand back up.

Breaker translated for him. "Snake says he's very sorry, but you can't be so rash and touchy about these things. You know that that's not what the General meant, you were just trying find a chance to leave because you still don't trust us, which is fine. But you can't always act like this." he sighed. "He's right, Ms. Andrelus. We will let you leave now, if you'd like, but please think about all of this. There is a chance you could get your eyesight back if you wanted to. We have the technology to do just that."

Her breath caught in her throat, but she ran out the place anyways. Stuffing her hands into her pockets, she stomped all of the way back home. How had they known about her retinal disease? They had probably looked at her medical records. Since Hawk was a General, she figured that he had unrestricted access to all of that information. But could she really get back her sight? No, no, that was probably a lie, which Breaker only said to convince her to join them. He probably thought that right when he said that, she would completely jump for joy and immediately join their team and do what they wanted. She couldn't be so desperate and weak. She was just fine with how she lived — this is how she's lived for the last 18 years of her life, and this "disability" was apart of her now, and she was just fine with it.

Damn him and damn the Joes.


End file.
